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Rotorua walk

The interesting thing with Rotorua is that signs of volcanic activity are everywhere. Vapourous hot pools abound, with just a short (less than 5 minutes) walk takes you to several spots with water hot enough to need safety barriers.

First I started with Sulphur point, a place where numerous birds come to nest in the warm water area.

The seagulls were especially plentiful here. And protective of their area. Far less intimidating than magpies though.

I continued on and found two crater pools, thought to be two of the original ‘hot pools’ in the area.

Moving just to the other side of the town center and a little away from the lake, you encounter other small volcanic lakes.

Wouldn’t want to have fallen in here. This is one of the few places in New Zealand that does place numerous guardrails around for tourist safety. Most other places simply assume common sense prevails (ie cliffs). I can see why it is necessary – on a cool day a nice hot pool doesn’t sound like a bad idea…but there really isn’t any easy way to find out just how hot that water is without touching it. And that might be a bad idea.

After that it was on to some repeat visits I had done before – Blue and Green Lakes and the Redwoods Forest being the main two. The reason? A friend was here in Rotorua for a visit!

I’ve known Aura for probably 7 years or so now. She quit her job shortly after I did, and also began a world wide trip. In her case though, she’s travelled good parts of Africa, India and Asia on her way here and is just now finishing up her 6 month trip with stops in New Zealand and Australia before heading home. Our paths in New Zealand cross for a couple days here in Rotorua, so it will be fun to see a few of the sights with a friend from home.